


Don't you feel it?

by chilirocket



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Meet-Cute, Pre-Slash, there are also some other youtubers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-05-14 22:13:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14778248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chilirocket/pseuds/chilirocket
Summary: Dan was invited to a get together only knowing the hostess, his friend Louise. He was nervous and felt awkward amongst the older guests. But who would’ve thought that all it took to break the ice were bikes and some loud reggaeton?





	Don't you feel it?

**Author's Note:**

> Hii, this is my first phan fic - thank you for reading!  
> I wanted to write this because something similar once happened to me ^_^

[](https://share-your-photo.com/4f623f637a)

Dan was standing in front of his friend Louise’s house, about to ring the doorbell. He hesitated.

She’d told him to stop by her place around half eight for a little get together. She’d instructed him to bring his bike - as if he hadn’t done that anyway - because later on they’d apparently go to a small party at a nearby lake.

It sounded all pretty nice, still he hesitated.

He’d known Louise for pretty much all his life. They’d lived in the same neighbourhood in Wokingham before she’d gone to university in London, but after graduating she’d returned to their small town. He’d always loved hanging out with her, their age difference not being important to them. It would be lovely to see her again. It had been too long.

But still he hesitated.

There would be other people. People that he didn’t know. People that he didn’t know how to interact with. They’d probably have interesting lives, and fascinating stories to tell. Stories about their flat mates, their courses at uni, and what they’d got up to at the weekends, while Dan still lived with his parents, having just started his gap year after completing his A Levels, and not really knowing what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. Also, his perfect weekend consisted of playing video games, listening to his favourite bands, and watching anime.

“Are you gonna come in or what?”

The loud voice startled Dan. Blushing at being caught standing around he looked around and finally saw Louise looking out of one of the windows. She was waving at him, smiling brightly.

“Hi,” Dan greeted. “I was just about to ring the doorbell.”

“Sure you were,” Louise agreed easily. “Just let yourself in, the door’s on the latch. The others are in the conservatory and I’ll be there in just a moment. I’m just getting some more ice for the cocktails.” Having said that she disappeared from the window again.

“Right,” Dan murmured, facing the door again. He wiped his clammy hands on his shorts before letting himself in.

Even if he hadn’t known where the conservatory was he would’ve been able to find it. There was some music being played - nothing Dan recognised, probably a ‘party anthems’ playlist since that was what Louise was into - as well as apparently quite a few people trying to talk over the music. Slowly he made his way towards it.

He stopped at the door and looked inside the room. There were a couple of people sitting on a couch and some chairs, all of them looking older than Dan was. ‘That’s because they are older’, Dan reminded himself.

“Hey,” shouted a girl with long, brown hair. She smiled and waved to him.

So, he’d been noticed then. He stepped into the room hesitantly. He returned the smile and sat down next to the girl on the couch. He looked around the room at the other people and found that all the attention was on him. Some were smiling, others nodding at him. Quickly he focused on the girl next to him again.

“I’m Zoe,” she introduced herself. “You’re Dan, yeah? Louise said that you’d come round as well.”

All Dan could do was nod. He glanced around hurriedly and realised that unlike before nobody paid him any attention anymore.

“So, this is Cat,” Zoe gestured to the girl who was sitting on her other side on the couch. Cat smiled at him as Zoe continued, “and the guys over there are PJ and Chris.” They were standing together closely and talking heatedly. “Don’t mind them,” Zoe hastened to explain. “They were best friends for ages but then during our first year of uni Chris just disappeared for a bit and now their friendship is a little rough. Anyway, the guys on the chairs over there are Phil, Tyler, and Sophie. Sophie is PJ’s girlfriend. They actually met when Phil and PJ did this exchange with a uni from Guatemala. And you know Louise, of course,” finished Zoe as Louise entered the conservatory with the ice she’d wanted to fetch in one hand, and a glass with a colourful liquid in the other.

She came directly over to him and passed him the glass. “So Dan, I prepared you a cocktail while I was at it. I hope you like it and there’s definitely more where this came from.”

Dan accepted the drink gratefully. He was happy to have something to occupy his hands with. He took a sip and was relieved that it didn’t taste too much like alcohol since he wasn’t an avid drinker. But this he could do. He glanced at the other people again.

Meanwhile, Louise had sat down on a chair across from Zoe and Cat and the three of them had resumed what was probably a conversation they’d started earlier. From what Dan could make out it was about a boy from their uni that had propositioned one of their lecturers. Dan tried to listen to them for a bit but found it increasingly difficult to follow the story. It seemed all pretty complex and they threw names of people around that he wasn’t familiar with.

Instead Dan turned slightly to his other side and tried to listen to what the other people were talking about.

“Ok, but when you were in Tokyo, did you go to the Robot Restaurant?” wanted the girl to know. Sophie, he remembered.

“Yeah,” answered the boy with short, black hair. Dan didn’t know whether that was Phil or Tyler. “It was good, a lot of fun but honestly, I preferred the Tokyo Ghoul Café. That was just incredible!”

“I love that anime,” whispered Dan.

“Yeah?” asked the boy from before, looking at Dan, before continuing. “All the food was made to look like human flesh. Pretty disgusting… but also a little cool.”

“Ugh, no, that’s not for me,” said the blonde boy. He made exaggerated vomiting gestures to which the other two started laughing.

“We know,” agreed Sophie. “But anyway, we all probably loved the same - ”

“Studio Ghibli Museum!” shouted the boys in unison.

“It was so magical,” enthused the black haired boy and went off on a tangent.

Dan suddenly remembered that he had a drink in his hands. He took a few sips in order to get a little Dutch courage for the conversations. He also didn’t want to look ungrateful.

Meanwhile the small group had moved on to another topic. Dan tried to listen to them again but since he was unfamiliar with the topic he just sighed and leant back a little.

Louise’s friends weren’t unfriendly per se, he just found it difficult to connect with them. They were in different stages of their lives, they’d had different experiences so far, and since he didn’t know any of them - except for Louise - he also didn’t really know how to start a conversation with them. Not that they did that either, so Dan just sat there. Waiting. Sipping on his cocktail. Thinking about the new anime series he’d just started watching earlier that day.

More time than he had realised must have passed because somebody suddenly exclaimed, “Do you wanna go then? We shouldn’t get there too late.”

Some people seemed to agree, so everybody started getting up, gathering the glasses and bottles. Dan grabbed a couple as well and brought them into the kitchen. That’s where he ran into Louise who put some of the remaining drinks into the fridge.

“Where is it we’re going anyway?”

“Oh, didn’t I tell you?”

“No, you only said that we’d be going to a party after this but you never said where it actually is.”

“Right. So, it’s at Windmill Pond. You know, the small pond that’s a couple of miles northeast from here?”

Dan nodded. He’d been there once or twice but he didn’t know that people had parties there. But then again, he never actually went to parties, so he wasn’t one to know anyway.

 

When they stepped outside it was quiet. Typical for that area of Wokingham. Most people had probably gone to bed, having to work again the next day. The sun had only just set, it being the middle of July, thus leaving a faint golden glow.

Dan went over to his bike to unlock it. He put his cardigan on the rear rack and pushed his bike to where the others were.

All of a sudden there was music. Startled, Dan tried to make out the source of it. Most people were still getting ready though, unlocking their bikes, putting on their jackets, or switching on their lights, and apart from them there was nobody else. Dan frowned until PJ suddenly came up to Sophie, declaring “Esto es para ti, mi amor!” He then started singing with the music that was playing “Si tu supieras cuanto yo a ti te amo…”

Sophie only rolled her eyes, admittedly fondly, and wanted to know, “Why is it always the remix? The original is so much nicer!”

“But it doesn’t fit our adventure,” PJ all but whined. “You know that.”

Sophie only grinned at him and went back to her bike, leaving PJ with Phil, who’d brought both of their bikes over.

“We’ll conquer this neighbourhood one reggaeton song at a time!” PJ shouted in the direction of where his girlfriend had disappeared to.

Phil laughed unabashedly and clapped PJ on his back. “Come on, let’s go. You know she loves it. They all do.”

Dan had watched the exchange between PJ and Sophie unashamedly. It seemed as if it hadn’t been the first time that they’d had that conversation. Their relationship seemed so easy. Dan sighed longingly.

Before he knew it the group had set off towards the lake, music still blasting from PJ’s bike. Dan had to hurry in order to not get left behind. Fortunately, he knew where they were going but still, he tried to speed up a little.

Soon he was in the middle of the group, riding alone, while it appeared that everybody else was riding next to at least one other person, talking to them, enjoying the trip.  
He looked for Louise and found her next to Zoe. They were laughing, having a great time apparently. He wasn’t sure about the other people. He didn’t know them that well, so he didn’t really want to approach them.

They sped through the streets, cutting corners and hoping nobody would cross their way.

After some time the people in front of Dan fell back a little, so that he could see that it was PJ and Phil at the top, leading the group. They picked up the pace more and more and Dan found it increasingly difficult to keep up.

“Hey, why are you going so fast?” shouted Dan.

“Don’t you feel it?” Phil yelled back. He was grinning and looking over his shoulder at Dan. He turned back quickly though, stood up a little and looked towards the sky. “Whooooooooo!” He screamed.

‘Feel what?’ Dan wondered.  
  
Phil kept on whooping, while going even faster. He was closely followed by PJ who joined him in whooping as loudly as he could, only to start shouting the lyrics of the chorus of the song that came on next.  “Ay dime dime dime si te vas con él….”

Dan could only shake his head but there was a fond smile on his face. And maybe he got it after all, he supposed.

It was exhilarating riding your bike that fast, and at night at that. Riding it with so many people next to you - usually he’d go alone. And the music of course. He’d never really given reggaeton a listen and he had no idea what they were even singing about but he couldn’t deny that it fit the occasion.

He felt a sense of belonging but even more importantly, he felt free.

“Whoooooo”, he was a little quiet at first, testing out how it felt. But he got bolder quickly, gaining speed and letting out his joy more and more loudly.

“Ayyy, now you’ve got it,” shouted PJ over the music as soon as Dan had caught up with them.

Dan smiled in reply, content with the situation.

 

When they reached the lake they locked their bikes to some trees. They were the beginnings of a small forest that was situated on one side of the lake. Also, apparently other people had had the same idea as them, judging by the other bikes that already took up plenty of space.

Once everybody was done they walked towards the party area. Even in the dark it was easy to make out where it was as there was a big bonfire and the organisers had put up lots of fairy lights.  
  
The closer they came, the easier it also became to hear the music. They weren’t playing reggaeton, though, much to Dan’s disappointment. He’d just got used to it and to his surprise he really enjoyed it. But no, at the lake they were playing some kind of chill out music. It was quite relaxing actually. So it wasn’t the kind of party at which everybody was dancing a lot and going wild, but rather a laid-back gathering at which people were talking with each other, having some drinks, roasting marshmallows over the bonfire, and just enjoying each other’s company.

There were about fifty people at the lake. Some were lounging on old couches, others were standing and swaying to the music and a few even sat on the ground.

“Hey, do you wanna check out the drinks?” Suddenly Phil was next to Dan. He slung his arm over Dan’s shoulder and pulled him with him in the direction of where there was a queue at a table. Once Dan looked a little closer he saw that that’s where the drinks were handed out.

“What are you going to have?” wanted Phil to know as he got ready to order for the two of them.

“Ehm…. a cocktail if they have one?”

“I don’t think they do,” said Phil, straining his neck to see everything that was on offer. “How about we just mix some Vodka with Coke? It’s sweet as well and you won’t even notice the Vodka.”

Dan just nodded. He didn’t have a lot of experience with alcohol, so he just hoped for the best when he trusted Phil to get them their drinks.

While Phil joined the queue, Dan waited to the side of the table. Looking around, he saw Louise and Zoe in the distance. They apparently had immediately started to dance and they were doing so with abandon. Dan smiled fondly.

After only a couple of minutes Phil got back to Dan. “Here,” he gave one of the drinks to Dan. “It tastes quite alright if I may say so myself.”

“Yeah,” Dan replied after having taken a sip himself. “Yeah, it’s good.” He looked expectantly to Phil.

“Right, so, shall we sit? I wanna sit.” He looked around and even turned around himself, trying to find a good place.

“How about over there?” Dan pointed to a spot right at the edge of the lake. There was even an abandoned blanket that they could use.

“Good idea!”

Once they had sat down and positioned themselves, Phil spoke again, “So, you’re Dan?”

When Dan didn’t say anything, only nodded, Phil continued, “Louise talks about you quite a bit.”

“She does?” Dan was honestly surprised. What was there to say about him? Especially to a stranger?

“Of course, she always talks about you. Says that you’ve been friends for ages and that she loves meeting up with you.”

“Yeah, same,” Dan agreed. “Even though we’re quite a bit different from each other…”

Phil laughed out loud, “Yeah, I’d say! She’s just a tad more boisterous than you are.” Phil poked out his tongue.

“Haha.” Dan was not amused. “I’m just shy…”

“And there’s nothing wrong with that!” Phil assured immediately. “But honestly, I just wanted to get to know you because Louise’s my friend as well. Also, you’re cute.”

“What?” Dan squeaked. He looked at the older boy with wide eyes.

“You heard me!” Phil laughed. He didn’t want to make Dan feel uncomfortable though, so he prompted, “So, at Louise’s you said that you like anime?”

“Yeah, I love it!” Dan’s eyes shone with enthusiasm. Phil couldn’t have asked a better question to get him talking. “Tokyo Ghoul is amazing and if you like that you might also like Parasyte. I sure loved it but I also love other kinds of anime. I think everybody should’ve seen the classics such as Neon Genesis Evangelion at least once! But then there’s anime such as Free! and Your Lie in April and they’re incredible as well! I mean, I just try to keep an open mind…”

“I like that, keeping an open mind. It can certainly be of use when watching anime, “ Phil said winking at Dan.

Dan snorted. “Definitely! I mean, tentacle porn might sound good in theory but how can you ever actually be prepared to watch something like that?”

Phil looked a little shocked. “Weren’t you shy just about a minute ago? And now you’re talking about tentacle porn!”

“I mean… it’s still anime. And… like I said, I love anime, so…” Dan stammered, blushing again.

“Oh hey, no worries!” Phil was quick to reassure. “I just wasn’t expecting it just then. But you do make a good point!” He winked again. “But anyway, I’d say tentacle porn is more second date material…. So, what do you do? Are you still in school?”

“No, but I could’ve been? I mean, I finished my A Levels but I decided to take a gap year because I’m not really sure yet what I want to do? I was looking to study Law but I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. What are you studying then?”

And so their conversation went from anime to more personal topics, to music and their dreams.  
Dan found it surprisingly easy to talk to Phil, which was a first for him. Usually it took him longer to warm up to new people but ever since Phil had taken the first step by getting him a drink and initiating a conversation, Dan felt like they’d just clicked. It was nice.

Phil was in the middle of telling a story about how a squirrel once attacked him when Louise appeared next to them. “Oh, here you are! I’ve been looking for you!”

“Ok? We’ve been here all along, just talking.” Dan explained.

“That’s lovely,” she smiled. Dan could still see though how exhausted she seemed to be. So he wasn’t surprised when she said, “I just wanted to let you know that I’m heading home. PJ and Sophie already left about an hour ago and the others are going to stay a little longer. So, are you coming as well or are you going to stay?”

Suddenly Dan got shy again. It was as if the bubble Phil and he had been in had burst and now he was back in the real world.

“Ehm… Well, it’s been really nice talking with you, Phil, but I think I’ll head home with Louise - if that’s ok.”

“Of course that’s ok!” Phil replied immediately, aiming to keep Dan comfortable. “I’ll head out as well then.”

Thus Dan and Phil gathered their cups that they hadn’t even finished and brought them back to the table they’d got them at earlier. Together with Louise they then went to get their bikes.

This bike ride was quite a bit different from the one earlier. This time there was no music and they didn’t go as fast. Instead they rode leisurely, talking about the party as well as the upcoming weekend.

When it was time for Dan to take a different turn than Louise and Phil, who’d be staying at Louise’s for the night, they all stopped and hugged goodbye.

“Would you mind if I texted you some time?” Phil asked Dan.

Dan blushed again. “No, of course not. I’d love that!” He got out his phone from his pocket and handed it to Phil.  
Once they’d exchanged their numbers, Dan pocketed his phone again. He got back on his bike and rode off in the direction of his home. Some metres in, he turned his head around, quickly waving at Louise and a smiling Phil, before he took another turn and was gone from their sight.


End file.
